Expedition Report: 1st tree and 1st forest

At 6 a.m. we set sail from Moos Harbor towards Nain where we saw the 1st tree since end of June in Hawaii. Further South there were more and more trees and finally becoming a forest. The sun was shining, the sky was blue, there was some snow on mountain tops and the trees were in their autumn colors like back home in Switzerland in the Engadin Valley.
It was paradise sailing with a steady breeze through the labyrinth of islands and following deep fiords, carved out by glaciers in the last ice age. We enjoyed this Indian summer day after the storm and the kids were excited to watch the bears on the shore.
At one point we had to leave our sheltered fiord-channel-route and sail in the open ocean. You could feel the swell from the previous storm and it was hard to see the broken debris from collapsing icebergs in the moving sea. To go back into the fiords leading to Nain it was tricky to read the shallows, tide rips and breakers around Willis Rocks entering Port Manvers. But ones in the channel we did 12 knots through a narrow called Second Rattle. The moon came out and we decided to anchor in Challenger Cove to avoid counter currents. Sabine did a delicious Pizza and the kids presented their presents to Meret, who planned to leave in Nain to go back to University in GB.